The Goodies weren't just a comic trio, they had a number of hits in the mid-'70s eventually peaking at #4 with Funky Gibbon. Although credited to The Goodies most of these recordings were Bill's songwriting, vocals and, in the vein of his favorite genre, Funk.

"Beastly Record" features a much more even spread of performances from Bill, Tim and Graeme.

Book Ends. The melody of "All Things Bright And Beautiful", the first song on their first album and début single, is reprised in "I Am A Carnivore" which is the penultimate song on the final album. It was kind of Bill's way of saying goodbye to a fantastic 5-year discography.

Dance Sensation: Funky Gibbon became one when The Goodies went on The Top of the Pops

Ear Worm. If the incidental music doesn't stick in your head then nothing else will!

Everything's Better with Monkeys: "The Funky Gibbon" — the greatest novelty hit of The Goodies. This obsession with primates, especially gibbons, was a carryover from Im Sorry Ill Read That Again, which featured such musical numbers as "Stuff That Gibbon" (used as background music to some of the film sequences in the early series of The Goodies).

Offscreen Moment of Awesome: All of the music recorded for the show. All of the killer funk recorded with Michael Gibbs and Dave Macrae. Most of it is in mono and has a laugh track over it so listening to it is unsatisfactory.

Andrew Pixley from goodiesruleok.com compiled a list of the songs here and variousthreads have specified that it is extant in SFX and laughter-free format but Oddie won't release it for various reasons.

One-Hit Wonder: in the USA, where the only Goodies song that charted, briefly, was Funky Gibbon. Apparently the US Dance and Disco Chart took it as a straight disco number played for real and a real dance craze. It took them a while to work it out...

Most of the tracks from "Sings Songs From The Goodies" are rerecorded songs from the first three series of the show. "Taking You Back", while appearing in "Camelot" (the first episode of the fourth series), actually came from the episode's original session tape. In track order:

Song

Episode

Ep. No.

Series

Ride My Pony

Hunting Pink

24

3

Stuff That Gibbon

That Old Black Magic

26

3

Mummy I Don't Like My Meat

Superstar

29

3

Show Me the Way

Snooze

2

1

Goodies Theme

(title sequences)

23-36

3+4

Sparrow Song

Superstar

29

3

Winter Sportsman

Winter Olympics

25

3

Spacehopper

Charity Bounce

19

2

"The Funky Gibbon" has the same chords as "Goodies Theme"

"Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me" is set to the tune of "Battle Hymn Of The Republic"

Recurring Riff: The brass intro to "The Funky Gibbon" may sound familiar as might the guitar intro to "The Inbetweenies". (Goody goody yum yum!)

Self-Backing Vocalist: Bill used to rerecord Tim and Graeme's backing vocals late into the night. He put his voice through a studio harmonizer so they couldn't tell the difference.

Singer-Songwriter: Bill really fits this to a tee. Not only was he totally serious about it all he has a voice that really does deserve its own recognition.

In fact, he did release a couple of straight pop singles in the middle 1960's; a record company thought he had the looks and the voice to make it work.

Sound To Vinyl Adaptation; A fair number of the songs, written by Oddie, first aired on the 1960's radio ensemble comedy precursor to The Goodies, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, others, like The Funky Gibbon, are extened allusions to the themes and concepts of the original radio show.

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